Box-car-door latch



T. w. ALLEN ET AL BOX CAR DOOR LATCH Filed April 30, 1924 Fflo. 1.

INVENTOR A TTORNE YS l atentcd May 2.5, 19135;

Es PATENH? eerie E, v

enemas w. ALLEN" AND new: A. WYATT, or MEMPHIS; Teams sea.

Remorse-D0012 BEIGE.-

Application" fild Ap'fll 'ZO, 1924.. serial at. 709,984.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, THOMAS KALILEN and Lox 2r. lVY-A r'r, citizens of. the United States, and: residents o't Memphis, in the county of Shelby andl State of Tenn'essee have invented certain new and useful- Im-' provernentsin Box-Car-Door Latches, of: whichr the following; isa specification.

Our invention relatesto improvements in latches or retaining devices-for the: doors of freight cars, and it consists in the combina tions, constructions and arrangements l1e'r-ein described: and claimed.

More s 'aecilically our invention is a latclr which is adapted to be applied to a freight car door of ordinary constructionand which then affords facilities for holding? the car door cit her in open: or closed position: securely, although releasably.

An object of the invention is to obviate the necessity of providing the usual fasten= ing'cleat's for securing a car door in closed position at the rearward edge of the car door, our invention comprising latching means for securing thecai" door tothe car body so that a car door cannot readilybe pried" loose from or' forced" away from the car body at the rearward edge of thecar door.

A further object 0t our invention is to provide a latch of si n'iplified construction which comprises movable latch bolt adapt ed to be carried by the" car door and inherently actuated means urging the latch boltcontinuously toward latching position.

A; further object of: our invention is to provide a latch' for freight car doors which comprises a" latch bolt which is adapted to cooperate witlr elements on the car body to releasab'ly holditlie car door in: either closed position or opeu position when said latch bo'l'thas been applied to the car door ad ia'ceu't to tlie'lower end oi the latter and in position. to be conveniently manipulated by awor-kn a-lr who is standing on the" ground zilQligSlClG ot the car;

A still further object of thc' in'ventioni'sto provide a latch: of the character de-= scribed which is adapted to applied to the door of a f'leig ht'car andwhich affords facilities for holding the door either" in closed: or open position in suclr niannertliat tlie stresses on the latch when the 'la'tt'er is in latching; position will be efiectively" resisted without likelihood of breakage of any oi" the parts of the latch,

Other objects and" advantageswill be ap parent from the fol-lowlng ClGSCIIPtIOII, con

'sidened in conjunctionl with the accompany lug drawings, in Whi ch Figure 1 is a side elevation showing; a" portion ot a: freight car equipped with a latchernbodying our invention;

Figure 2- is asection substantially along the line of Figure 1 i Figure 31 is a section substantially along thedine of Figure 1, and

c Figure 4 is al section substantially along" theli ne 44 of Figure- In Figure 1', we show portion of the aody of: a' freight-scar 1 ofordinary co rstruction. Thisfreightcar is provided with the usual opening: in the side thereof and has a: horizontally slidab'le door 31nova-ble to and from position to close the opening.- Thedoor?) may be supported: in any suitable know-1r manner, as for example by meansof the door hangers at the'upper end of the door cooperating with the horizontal rail 5 which is carried by the side wall o'f'the car body at the'upperend' of the latter and the horizontal series of spaced" retaining and guiding? brackets 6 secured on the side wall of the car body in position: to -engage with the" lower edge portion of the door. The door3 also may be slightly spaced from the outer faceot the side wall of'the car body during itsmovement to open position by a liorizontal bar 6 Which is securedtothe side all ofthe' car'body adjacent to: the lower end OTE the latter. The car body ordinarily isprovided with vertical posts, such asthat indicated;

at: 7, secured to the side wall against the inner face thereof and at opposite sides of the opening: in theside of: the car body.

The'parts described so far are ordinary in construction aii'd form 110 part of our'inventioir exceptin so far as they'cooperate with the parts which will now be described:-

' hrcarrying out our invention, weprovide a tra usverse OpeningrS-thrOugh the'car door adjacent to the rearlow er corner oi the'car door. The opening 8 is enlarged or coun= terbored at its inner end as indi'cated at 9' and; is adapted to receive a1 tubular latch casing" 10L The tubular latch casinglO is provided with an integral attaching: plate portion l-l which is disposed flat wise against the outer face of the door 3 at the time the inner end portion of the casing 10" extends through tl1e p ning 8 into the" counter-bore 9. The attaching plate 11 is secured to the door 3 by suitable fastening devices, such as the bolt and nut indicated at 12.

The tubular latch casing preferably extends an appreciable distance from the plane of the face of the outer plate 11 and is reduced in diameter adjacent to its outer end, as indicated at 13. A latch bolt 14 extends through the tubular latch casing 10 and is slidably and rotatably supported by the inner wall of the reduced portion 13. The latch bolt 14 is longer than the retaining pin and extends at its opposite ends beyond the corresponding ends of the. latch casing. A handle 15 extends from the outer end of the latch bolt 14 atan angle to the latter slightly less than 90 and bears against a laterally extending cam rib '16 on the upper part of the attaching plate 11. The rib 16 terminates at one end almost directly above the outer end of the tubular from that end toward its other end so that the latch bolt 14 will be moved axially outward in the casing 10 when the handle 15 has been grasped and is swung upward in sliding contact with the cam rib 16 to upright position, as illustrated in Fig. 3. hen the handle 15 swings downwardly or in a clock wise direction from the position shown in Figure 3, the latch bolt 14 will move axially inward from the position illustrated in Figure 8 to the position illustrated in Figure 2 in response to the action of an expansion spring 17 which is coiled about the latch bolt 14 between the reduced portion 13of the latch casing and a washer 18 that is disposed on the latch bolt against a stop pin 19. When the handle 15 is in upright position as illustrated in Figure 3, an elongated latch lug or detent 20 which is rc movably secured to the locking bolt 14 at the inner end of the latter also will be disposed in upright position. At this time, the latch bolt 14 is in its outermost or retracted position in respect to the latch casing 10 and the latch lug or detent 20 will be disposed in the counterbore or recess 9. When the arm is swung in a clockwise direction, the latch bolt 14 moves axially inward and also turns in a clockwise direction through an arc of 90. This will result in the moving of the latch lug 20 from the recess 9 beyond the plane of the innerface of the door 3 and the swinging of the latch lug 20 in a clock wise direction to position to enter a socket 21 in the side of the car body at the adj acent or rearward edge of the door opening. The socket 21 may be a recess or depression in the adjacent post- 7 but preferably is a depressed portion of a plate 22 which is secured to the adjacent post 7 by screws 23 or like fastening devices. lVhen the latch lug 20 is in engagement with the socket 2 1,

as illustrated in Figure 2, the handle 15 will be disposed substai'itially in horizontal position and in contact with the cam rib 16 at the narrower end of the latter. The handle 15 may be secured to the cam rib in this position by any suitable known fastening means, such as the usual car seals, not shown, which may be threaded through openings 24 and 25 in the handle 15 and the cam rib 16 respectively and then may have the end portions thereof secured together in the usual manner.

From the foregoing description of the various parts of the device, the operation thereof may be readily understood. be obvious that the car door 3 will be held against moving from closed position when the detent or latch lug 20 at the inner end of the latch bolt is engaged with the socket 21. Moreover, since the door 3 is locked in the manner described to the fixed post 7 and therefore to the car body at a point adjacent to both the rearward edge and the lower end of the car door, the latter will be held securely against theouter face of the adjacent portion of the ide wall of the car body without there being any necessity of providing the usual fastening cleats or battens in order to hold the car door close at its rearward edge of the car body. It also will be apparent that it will be. extremely difiicult for an unauthorized person to gain access to the exterior of the car by inserting a lever or other tool between the rearward edge portion of the car door and the car body preliminarily to forcingthe rear edge portion of the car door outward from the car body since the engagement of the detent .20 with the socket 21 will tend to hold the car door so close to the car body that no space will be provided for the insertion of a tool'of any size between the car door and the car body even though the underlying guiding and retaining bracket 6 shall have been removed.

p When the latch bolt is in retracted or nonlatching position, the inner end of the latch bolt and the detent 20 will clear the outer face or side wall of the car body when the car door moves from closed to its fully open position or vice versa. However, after the handle 15 has been released after having been moved to upright position to effect retraction of the latch bolt and the door 3 has been moved from fully closed position, the action of gravity on the handle 15 and of the spring 17 on the latch bolt will tend to cause the handle 15 to swing in a clockwise direction with consequent projection of the It will latch bolt axially inward toward latching The detent 20 will slide in contact with the if wear bar 6 and sl-iould the door move to tally closed position after having been 'atched in a partly open position, the detent 20 will drop into the socket 21 automatically and the door then will be held against swinging idly and in closed position until the dc tent 20 has been moved as a result of manual ctuation ot the handle out of engagement with the socket 21. Should the door 3 move from partly open position to fully open position, the detent will drop into a socket 26 which is suitably located in the side wall of the car body at the rearward end of the wear bar 6 and the car door then will be held against idle movement from fully opened position. Continued sliding of the car door equipped with our invention back a d forth between open and closed positions when the car is in movement thus is precluded, since, if a car door equipped with our invention be left in partly open position, the first shook to which the car will be subjected in service will result in the car door moving either to fully closed or fully open position and our latching device then would function to prevent any further movement of the car door relatively to the car body until the latch bolt has manually operated to oliect release of the car door from the car body.

Another important advantage of our invention results from the fact that our latch is so constructed and the cooperative elements comprised in the latch and carried by the car body are so positioned in respect to each other that neither the latch bolt nor the keeper or socket men'iber is under tensile stress when the door is retained against n'iovement relatively to the car body, the stress tend'ag to move the car door from the position in which it is retained being in the nature ot a shearing stress on the latch bolt and not tending to cause the latch bolt to disengage the cooperative keeper, as is the ease in ordinary latchconstrnctions of which we are aware.

The handle 15 rests adjacent to its outer end on a lateral stop projection carried by the plate 11 and located at the narrower end ot the cam rib 16 when the handle is in downwardly swung or substantially horizontal position;

Ol7V l0HE$lfi,Ol11' invention is susceptible of embodiment in forms other than that illus trated in the accompanying drawings and we therefore consider as our own all such modifications and adaptations of the form of the device herein disclosed as fairly fall within the scope of the appended claims;

li e claim 1. A latch for car doors, comprising a tubular casing adapted to be positioned in a transverse opening in a car door, a latch bolt supported by the tubular casing for movement to and from position to extend beyond the inner face of the car door, a handle at the outer. end otthe latch bolt, spring means urging said latch bolt continuously toward positionto extend beyond the inner taco ot' the car door, and cooperative stop elements respectively carried by said latch bolt and said latch casing for lifniting the'moveinent of said latch bolt in response to thenctnation of said spring.

'2; A latch comprising a tubular casing, a latch bolt extending through the bore of the tubular casing, said latch bolt being of greater length than the casing and being adapted to slide and rotate in the latter, said latch bolt having a laterally extending handle portion at the outer end thereof, and a cam rib associated with the tubular position and against which the handle slides when the handle is swung in one direction, whereby the latch bolt will be moved outward in the tubular casing.

3. A latch comprising a tubular casing, a

latch bolt extending through the bore of the tubular casing, said latch bolt being of greater length than the casing and being adapted to slide and rotate in the latter, said latch bolt having a laterally extending handle portion at the outer end thereof, a cam rib associated with the tubular position and against which the handle slides when the handle is swung in one direction, whereby the latch bolt will be moved outward in the tubular casing, and spring means tending to urge said latch bolt inward in the latch casing.

d. A latch comprising a tubular casing, a latch bolt extending through the bore of the tubular casing, said latch bolt being of greater length than the casing and being adapted to slide and rotate in the latter, said latch bolt having a laterally extending handle portion at the outer end thereof, a cam rib associated with the tubular position and against which the handle slides when the handle is swung in one direction, where by the latch bolt will be moved outward in the tubular casing, spring means tending to urge said latch bolt inward in the latch casing, and a laterally extending detent at the inner end of the latch bolt, said handle portion and said detent extending laterally ot the same side of the latch bolt.

5. A latch comprising atubular casing, a latch bolt extending through the bore of the tubular casing, said latch bolt being of greater length than the casing and being adapted to. slide and rotate in the latter, said latch bolt having a laterally extending handle portion at the outer end thereof, a

cam rib associated with the tubular position and against which the handle slides when the handle 1S swung in one direction, whereby the latch bolt will be moved outward in a the tubular casing, spring means tending to urge said latch bolt inward in the latch casing,'and a stop at one end of said cain rib for limiting the swinging movement of the handle in Contact With the rib,

6. The combination with a sliding car door having an opening formed therethrough adjacent to its rearward lower corner of a tubular easing disposed in said opening, a spring latch bolt rotatably and slidably supported in the bore of said casing and being of greater length than the casing,

said latch bolt being spring pressed axially inward continuously and having a detent portion at its inner end for engaging With a socket in a fixed part of the car body when the car door is in a certain position with respect to the car body, and a handle at the outer end of said latch bolt.

THOMAS W. ALLEN. LON A. WYATT. 

